FA Cup Final: United v City

City are obviously heavy heavy favourites but anything can happen in a one off game and we have shown we are capable of good performances........ We're also capable of getting absolute drubbed 7-0 though.

If we have any chance, Shaw / Lindelof or Varane need to have stormers and Rashford + Anthony will be crucial on the break.
 
ErikElevenHag said:
Wow who would have thought it, picking a day to undertake industrial action which will cause the most chaos.

There's no point losing a days pay to strike on a Sunday when less people typically travel.

It's not a hard concept to grasp. Everyone deserves the right to a fair payrise, I support them. The final isn't until June, plenty of time to find alternative transport.
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less people will actually travel on the Saturday then they would say during the week. If they did these strikes on random working days during the week they’d probably have more support. But they don’t, they wait for days where they know it’s either a major event or bank holiday.
If they wanted to strike on a day of maximum travel usage they’d do it on any given Monday. The way they’re doing atm isn’t going to adhere themselves to the public.
People wouldn’t complain too much about missing work or having to wfh. But when you start disrupting their social lives it won’t go down well.
 
I was really discouraged that we're going to have to play City in the FA Cup final without Martinez at the back. Then I went back and looked at the match day thread for our win over City in January and Martinez didn't start that day either. Okay, he came on as a late sub, but our starting back-line was Wan Bissaka, Varane, Shaw and Malacia.

At today's press conference ETH said Varane was closer to coming back than McTominay. Hopefully this means Rapha will be back in time to play a few games and get up to game speed before the final. So, potentially we'll have the same line-up available that beat them last time out. I think we may have a decent chance in this game. If not 50 / 50 then at least 45 / 55 or something like.

It would be really helpful if Martial could find his early season form before then.
 
Belisarius said:
I was really discouraged that we're going to have to play City in the FA Cup final without Martinez at the back. Then I went back and looked at the match day thread for our win over City in January and Martinez didn't start that day either. Okay, he came on as a late sub, but our starting back-line was Wan Bissaka, Varane, Shaw and Malacia.

At today's press conference ETH said Varane was closer to coming back than McTominay. Hopefully this means Rapha will be back in time to play a few games and get up to game speed before the final. So, potentially we'll have the same line-up available that beat them last time out. I think we may have a decent chance in this game. If not 50 / 50 then at least 45 / 55 or something like.

It would be really helpful if Martial could find his early season form before then.
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Yeah Varane and Shaw partnership would be perfectly fine. In fact, I think they are more suited to dealing with Haaland than Varane and Martinez even though I love Licha.
 
As EtH said we have to play a really good game but you only have to look at some of the goals we've scored against them over the past few years to see how deadly our counter attack can be. If we can start with a strong team and if everyone is in form we can win.
 
iammcculloch said:
Does anyone know good places to go to drink on the Friday and Saturday? Not got a ticket for the game but going to travel down anyway. Anyone got advice?
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Yea try a pub mate.
 
iammcculloch said:
Does anyone know good places to go to drink on the Friday and Saturday? Not got a ticket for the game but going to travel down anyway. Anyone got advice?
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Head to Killburn. Watched the League Cup final there. Some ace pubs and places to eat around there.
 
A one off-game anything can happen. We just need keep compact, we don't have the legs in the middle to fight fire with fire. The only downside is we have to allow them the width which is what we tend to do in hope of winning the ball when it's whipped in to begin our counter attacks.

Keep it tight, fight for everything and leave it all on the pitch and most of all which often fails us in finish those damn chances! It's a great opportunity to send a statement of intent for next season.
 
They are massive Favs, to win everything , we can stop them in this final, the underdog has won FA cup before , Everton v Us, Wigan V City, Wimbledon v scum.. it has been done. Get as many players fit as possible and it can be done..
 
If they keep up this level of performance till mid'ish June I wanna see a list of shit the City performance coach is providing the team. Freakish.
 
Best hope is via the counter so it will require lots of concentration and highly efficient use of the ball. Luckily we are great at both of those things eh?
 
Any chance we can just request the silver medals rather than playing them?
 
Rashford last minute winner would be beautiful, the satisfaction would run so deep.
 
Dannn411 said:
Best hope is via the counter so it will require lots of concentration and highly efficient use of the ball. Luckily we are great at both of those things eh?
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Real Madrid are a highly concentrated and ball efficient team.
 
All you can try to do against this City team at the moment is keep the score respectable. No one is managing it.
 
Chief123 said:
Any chance we can just request the silver medals rather than playing them?
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We might have to endure an avalanche of tiresome tirades about disrespecting the FA Cup, and the sponsors wouldn't be too happy but I still like the idea. Forfeit the game, take the default 3-0 loss and get on with our lives.
 
Sit deep and try and contain them while hitting them on the counter.
Go full out attack and try and outscore them.

Feck knows if either of the above will work against this City team. They're too good.
 
Just hope we catch them off guard as they are completely distracted with the CL final a week after this & hoping not to pick up an injury or two.

Just seems like our best bet as they are just too damn good right now.
 
Miniscule chances of we're honest. Would go:
De Gea
Wan Bissaka Varane Shaw Malacia
Bruno Casemiro Fred
Antony Martial Rashford​

They've all got a good track record vs City and big games IMO. We don't have a chance without Martial, just have to hope he turns it on that game. Garnacho impact sub, keep it right, kill the game and don't let them play and counter them in behind. only chance we have.

Martinez is a big loss as really not sure what to do at the back. We miss Shaw at LB massively, but also qe need his pace and agility in there along with the ball playing. Malacia I think I trust more up against Mahrez or Bernardo than Dalot. Wan Bissaka vs Grealish, not really his type of winger but you gotta go with him
 
RedDevilRoshi said:
Just hope we catch them off guard as they are completely distracted with the CL final a week after this & hoping not to pick up an injury or two.

Just seems like our best bet as they are just too damn good right now.
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They are chasing a treble. The last thing they will be is distracted. We just have to not play like utter cowards and it will at least be watchable. Anything else and they'll score 6 again.
 
We are the ideal team to play for City. We give the ball away cheaply in every single game.

They will absolutely hammer us if we do it again which we are sure to do. Our players just can't handle that pressure and pressing. They go to pieces.
 
I would feel no shame whatsoever to get outplayed for 120 minutes with 20% possession as long as we win 1-0 or even better on penalties.
 
One thing playing in our hands is it's one game because over 2 legs we'd have no chance. But it'll be so tough and just thinking about how much we struggle to score goals... makes it even harder for us. We played well vs them at Old Trafford in first half, then they were dominant in 2nd and leading before that goal from Rashford which turned things around.

Also the way we tend to have slow starts to second halves can't happen because they'll punish us. Madrid conceded 3 with Courtoa preventing another 2, De Gea isn't the GK he was 5 years ago to have many wonder saves in him.

I hope it won't be another thrashing, experienced too many of those over last couple of seasons.
 
bosnian_red said:
Miniscule chances of we're honest. Would go:
De Gea
Wan Bissaka Varane Shaw Malacia
Bruno Casemiro Fred
Antony Martial Rashford​

They've all got a good track record vs City and big games IMO. We don't have a chance without Martial, just have to hope he turns it on that game. Garnacho impact sub, keep it right, kill the game and don't let them play and counter them in behind. only chance we have.

Martinez is a big loss as really not sure what to do at the back. We miss Shaw at LB massively, but also qe need his pace and agility in there along with the ball playing. Malacia I think I trust more up against Mahrez or Bernardo than Dalot. Wan Bissaka vs Grealish, not really his type of winger but you gotta go with him
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This team will be demolished in 25 minutes. The physicality of Halland and Rodri would destroy us completely.

We need 4 midfielders in that game. We play man marking in midfield.
Rodri - Eriksen
KDB - Fred.

2 floating midfielders - Casemiro and Bruno tucked in trying to mark Stones.

City have no pacy wingers, Grealish and Bernado always cut inside.
But city have pacy leftbacks, meaning playing Antony would be toothless thing, as he will be nullified by Akanji in attack and he won't be defending alot on the wings as City have zero barline wingers.

Exactly as we played in OT in January. Antony and Garnacho as subs.
Ball over the top for Rashy and Martial throughout the game.
 
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